Pre-distortion method for telecommunication system and transmitter for mobile terminal of MC-CDMA telecommunication system

ABSTRACT

The invention concerns a pre-distortion method for a telecommunication system comprising a base station and at least one user. Each symbol of said user is spread with a coding sequence over a plurality of carriers to produce a plurality of corresponding frequency components of a signal (S i (t)) to be transmitted over an uplink transmission channel to said base station. Each frequency component is weighted by a weighting coefficient (ω i (l)), said weighting coefficient being determined from the downlink channel response coefficient (h i (l)) at the corresponding frequency and from a value of the noise variance (σ 2 ) affecting said carriers.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a method for uplink pre-distortion for a Multi-Carrier Code Division Multiple Access (MC-CDMA) telecommunication system.

2. Description of the Related Art

MC-CDMA has been receiving widespread interest for wireless broadband multimedia applications. Multi-Carrier Code Division Multiple Access (MC-CDMA) combines OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex) modulation and the CDMA multiple access technique. This multiple access technique was proposed for the first time by N. Yee et al. in the article entitled “Multicarrier CDMA in indoor wireless radio networks” which appeared in Proceedings of PIMRC'93, Vol. 1, pages 109-113, 1993. The developments of this technique were reviewed by S. Hara et al. in the article entitled “Overview of Multicarrier CDMA” published in IEEE Communication Magazine, pages 126-133, December 1997.

Unlike DS-CDMA (Direct Spread Code Division Multiple Access), in which the signal of each user is multiplied in the time domain in order to spread its frequency spectrum, the signature here multiplies the signal in the frequency domain, each element of the signature multiplying the signal of a different sub-carrier.

In general, MC-CDMA combines the advantageous features of CDMA and OFDM, i.e. high spectral efficiency, multiple access capabilities, robustness in presence of frequency selective channels, high flexibility, narrow-band interference rejection, simple one-tap equalisation, etc.

More specifically, FIG. 1 illustrates the structure of an MC-CDMA transmitter for a given user i. We consider here the uplink, i.e. we suppose that the transmitter is located in the mobile terminal (denoted MT) of a user i. Let d_(i)(n) be the symbol to be transmitted from user i at time nT to the base station, where d_(i)(n) belongs to the modulation alphabet. The symbol d_(i)(n) is first multiplied at 110 by the a spreading sequence (and a scrambling sequence which is here omitted for the sake of clarity) denoted c_(i)(t). The spreading sequence consists of N “chips”, each “chip” being of duration T_(c), the total duration of the spreading sequence corresponding to a symbol period T. Without loss of generality, we assume otherwise specified in the following that a single spreading sequence is allocated to the user. In general, a user may be allocated one or a plurality of orthogonal spreading sequences (multi-code allocation) according to the data rate required. In order to mitigate intra-cell interference, the spreading allocated to different users are preferably chosen orthogonal.

The result of the multiplication of the symbol d_(i)(n), hereinafter simply denoted d_(i) by the elements of the spreading sequence gives N symbols multiplexed in 120 over a subset of N frequencies of an OFDM multiplex. In general the number N of frequencies of said subset is a sub-multiple of the number L of frequencies of the OFDM multiplex. We assume in the following that L=N and denote c_(i)(l)=c_(i)(lT_(c)), l=0, . . . ,L−1 the values of the spreading sequence elements for user i. The block of symbols multiplexed in 120 is then subjected to an inverse fast Fourier transformation (IFFT) in the module 130. In order to prevent intersymbol interference, a guard interval of length typically greater than the duration of the impulse response of the transmission channel, is added to the MC-CDMA symbol. This is achieved in practice by adding a prefix (denoted Δ) identical to the end of the said symbol. After being serialised in the parallel to serial converter 140, the MC-CDMA symbols are converted into an analogue signal which is then filtered and RF frequency up-converted (not shown) before being amplified in amplifier 150 and transmitted over the uplink transmission channel. The MC-CDMA method can essentially be regarded as a spreading in the spectral domain (before IFFT) followed by an OFDM modulation.

The signal S_(i)(t) at time t which is supplied to the amplifier before being transmitted over the reverse link transmission channel can therefore be written, if we omit the prefix:

$\begin{matrix} {{S_{i}(t)} = {{d_{i}{\sum\limits_{l = 0}^{L - 1}{{c_{i}(l)}{\exp\left( {{j \cdot 2}\pi\; f_{l}t} \right)}\mspace{14mu}{for}\mspace{14mu}{nT}}}} \leq t < {\left( {n + 1} \right)T}}} & (1) \end{matrix}$ where f_(l)=(l−L/2)/T, l=0, . . . ,L−1 are the frequencies of the OFDM multiplex. More precisely, it should be understood that the transmitted signal is in fact Re(S_(i)(t)exp(j2πF₀t)) where Re(.) stands for the real part and F₀ is the RF carrier frequency. In other words, S_(i)(t) is the complex envelope of the transmitted signal.

An MC-CDMA receiver for a given user i has been illustrated schematically in FIG. 2. Since we consider the uplink, the receiver is located at the base station.

After baseband demodulation, the signal is sampled at the “chip” frequency and the samples belonging to the guard interval are eliminated (elimination not shown). The signal obtained can be written:

$\begin{matrix} {{R(t)} = {{{\sum\limits_{i = 0}^{K - 1}{\sum\limits_{l = 0}^{L - 1}{{h_{i}(l)} \cdot {c_{i}(l)} \cdot d_{i} \cdot {\exp\left( {{j \cdot 2}\pi\; f_{l}t} \right)}}}} + {{b(t)}\mspace{14mu}{for}\mspace{14mu}{nT}}} \leq t < {\left( {n + 1} \right)T}}} & (2) \end{matrix}$ where where t takes successive sampling time values, K is the number of users and h_(i)(l) represents the response of the channel of the user i to the frequency of the subcarrier l of the MC-CDMA symbol transmitted at time n.T and where b(t) is the received noise.

The samples obtained by sampling the demodulated signal at the “chip” frequency are serial to parallel converted in 210 before undergoing an FFT in the module 220. The samples in the frequency domain, output from 220, are despread by the spreading sequence of user i. To do this, the samples of the frequency domain are multiplied by the coefficients c_(i)*(l) (here in the multipliers 230 ₀, . . . , 230 _(L−1)) and then added (in adder 240). The summation result is detected in 250 for supplying an estimated symbol {circumflex over (d)}_(i). Although not represented, the detection may comprise an error correction decoding like a Viterbi or a turbo-decoding which are known as such.

Furthermore, in MC-CDMA as in DS-CDMA, equalisation can be performed at the receiving side in order to compensate for the dispersive effects of the transmission channel. In MC-CDMA, the samples in the frequency domain are respectively multiplied with equalising coefficients q_(i)(l), l=0, . . . ,L−1 (here in 230 ₀, . . . , 230 _(L−1)). However, in MC-CDMA in contrast to DS-CDMA, there is no simple equalisation method for an uplink channel because the estimation of an uplink channel appears very complex.

Indeed in MC-CDMA, this estimation must be performed before despreading, i.e. at the chip level, when the signal from the different users are still combined. In contrast, in DS-CDMA, this estimation is usually performed after despreading, i.e. at the symbol level, and therefore separately for each user.

In order to overcome the problem of channel estimation, it has been proposed to implement a pre-distortion at the transmitter side (i.e. in the mobile terminal, denoted MT), so that a simple demodulator could be used at the receiver side without needing to estimate the channel. The basic idea underlying pre-distortion is to exploit the reciprocity of the transmission channels (in TDD), that is the downlink channel estimation performed for the downlink demodulation is used as an estimation of the uplink channel. This implies both TDD-operation (same frequency band used for the uplink and downlink), and relatively low MT mobility, i.e. low Doppler frequency.

An MC-CDMA TDD-system with (downlink) pre-distortion has been described e.g. in the article of D. G. Jeong et al. entitled “Effects of channel estimation error in MC-CDMA/TDD systems” published in VTC 2000-Spring Tokyo, IEEE 51^(st), Vol. 3, pages 1773-1777. Pre-distortion is simply effected by multiplying each frequency component of the MC-CDMA symbol to be transmitted by the inverse of the channel response coefficient at said frequency, i.e. h_(i) ⁻¹(l). However, contrary to what is put forward in the above mentioned paper such downlink pre-distortion is not possible since the base station (denoted BS) cannot send one common pre-distorted multi-user signal which would have been optimised for the different propagation downlink channels from the base station to the mobile terminals (h_(i) ⁻¹(l) depends on i). This problem does not exist for the uplink transmission channels and one could think to apply this pre-distortion technique for the uplink. However, multiplying the frequency components by the coefficients h_(i) ⁻¹(l) may lead to a very high transmitted power if the uplink transmission channel exhibits deep fades (i.e. h_(i)(l) may be close to zero for some subcarriers l). This high transmitted power decreases in turn the battery autonomy and may significantly increase the interference towards adjacent cells.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of the present invention is to design a simple pre-distortion technique for an uplink channel in an MC-CDMA system which does not present the drawbacks set out above. To this end, the invention is defined by the pre-distortion method claimed in claim 1. Advantageous embodiments of the invention are set out in the dependent claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The characteristics of the invention will emerge from a reading of the following description given in relation to the accompanying figures, amongst which:

FIG. 1 depicts schematically the structure of an MC-CDMA transmitter known from the state of the art;

FIG. 2 depicts schematically the structure of an MC-CDMA receiver known from the state of the art;

FIG. 3 depicts schematically the structure of an MC-CDMA transmitter according to the invention;

FIG. 4 depicts schematically the structure of an MC-CDMA receiver to be used with the MC-CDMA transmitter according to the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The basic idea underlying the invention stems from the analogy between the pre-distortion and the demodulation issues. In both cases, the channel selectivity destroys the orthogonality of the spreading sequences and orthogonality must be restored without unduly increasing the noise level (in the demodulation case), or without unduly increasing the transmitting power (in the pre-distortion case).

We refer back to the context of an MC-CDMA TDD telecommunication system and more specifically to a base station receiving complex symbols from a plurality of active users i=0, . . . ,K−1. Let us denote, for user i, d_(i) the (complex scalar) transmitted symbol, c_(i) the vector of components c_(i)(l), h_(i) the channel response vector of components h_(i)(l), w_(i) a pre-distortion vector of pre-distortion coefficients w_(i)(l) and ω_(i) the corresponding vector of weighting coefficients ω_(i)(l)=w_(i)*(l). In general, c_(i), h_(i) w_(i) and ω_(i) are vectors of size N, where N is the spreading sequence length. As mentioned above, it is assumed that N=L, i.e. that the code sequence length is equal to the number of carriers and that one active user uses only one code sequence. However, the results set out below can be extended to the case where the number of carriers is greater than the spreading length (typically a multiple thereof) and/or to multi-code transmission.

After FFT, the received signal can be expressed as (see equation 2):

$\begin{matrix} {y = {{{\sum\limits_{j = 0}^{K - 1}{d_{j}\left( {\omega_{j} \circ h_{j} \circ c_{j}} \right)}} + \eta} = {{\sum\limits_{j = 0}^{K - 1}{d_{j}\left( {w_{j}^{*} \circ h_{j} \circ c_{j}} \right)}} + \eta}}} & (3) \end{matrix}$ where η is a vector of AWGN components of variance σ² and where ∘ expresses the vector multiplication element by element, that is (x∘y)_(k)=x_(k).y_(k).

The determination of the uplink channel responses being very difficult to achieve, the receiver of the base station simply demodulates the received signal by despreading it with each code sequence. The estimation of the symbol transmitted by the i^(h) user can be expressed as:

$\begin{matrix} {{\hat{d}}_{i} = {{\mu\; c_{i}^{H}y} = {{\mu{\sum\limits_{j = 0}^{K - 1}{d_{j}{c_{i}^{H} \cdot \left( {w_{j}^{*} \circ h_{j} \circ c_{j}} \right)}}}} + {\mu\; c_{i}^{H}\eta}}}} & (4) \end{matrix}$ where μ is a normalisation coefficient which for example represents the gain of the automatic gain control (AGC). As the code sequences are assumed to be normalised, η_(i)=c_(i) ^(H)η has a variance equal to σ². The expression (4) can be simplified by introducing a set of vectors v_(ij) where: v _(ij) =c _(i) *∘h _(j) ∘c _(j)  (5) Since the code sequences are assumed normalised and of constant amplitude, it can be noted that

$v_{ii} = {\frac{1}{N}{h_{i}.}}$ Therefore the estimate {circumflex over (d)}_(i) can then be rewritten as:

$\begin{matrix} {{\hat{d}}_{i} = {{\mu{\sum\limits_{j}{d_{j}\left( {w_{j}^{H} \cdot v_{ij}} \right)}}} + {\mu\eta}_{i}}} & (6) \end{matrix}$ The power used by the mobile terminal i for transmitting the symbol d_(i) can be expressed as: P _(i) =|w _(i)|² =w _(i) ^(H) ·w _(i)  (7) The interference term, denoted MAI(→i) and due to the users j≠i, is equal to:

$\begin{matrix} {{{MAI}\left( \rightarrow i \right)} = {\mu{\sum\limits_{\underset{j \neq i}{j = 0}}^{K - 1}{d_{j}\left( {w_{j}^{H} \cdot v_{ij}} \right)}}}} & (8) \end{matrix}$ whereas the useful term is equal to:

$\begin{matrix} {{\overset{\sim}{d}}_{i} = {{\mu\; d_{i}w_{i}^{H}v_{ii}} = {\frac{\mu}{N}d_{i}w_{i}^{H}h_{i}}}} & (9) \end{matrix}$ Assuming that the data d_(i) are normalised, the interference power for user i can be derived from (8):

$\begin{matrix} {{\Gamma\left( \rightarrow i \right)} = {\mu^{2}{\sum\limits_{\underset{j \neq i}{j = 0}}^{K - 1}{w_{j}^{H}v_{ij}v_{ij}^{H}w_{j}}}}} & (10) \end{matrix}$ and noting that the variance of the noise affecting the estimate {circumflex over (d)}_(i) is equal to μ²σ², the signal to noise plus interference ratio for user i, denoted SNIR_(i) can be expressed as:

$\begin{matrix} {{{SIN}\; R_{i}} = {\frac{\mu^{2}}{N^{2}}\frac{{{w_{i}^{H}h_{i}}}^{2}}{{\Gamma\left( \rightarrow i \right)} + {\mu^{2}\sigma^{2}}}}} & (11) \end{matrix}$

The purpose of the invention is to maximise SNIR_(i) under the constraint of a fixed value for the transmitted power P_(i). However, since the interference power Γ(→i) term depends on the vectors h_(j), j≠i of the transmission channel response coefficients as well as on the pre-distortion vectors w_(j), j≠i of the other users, the SNIR_(i) cannot be maximised independently. We face therefore an optimisation problem involving all the channel responses of the users which appears very complex. On top of the complexity aspect, a general solution to the optimisation problem, if it were to exist, would necessarily imply that the pre-distortion vector w_(i) for a given user i would be dependent on the channel response vectors of the other users j≠i. Hence, in order to apply a pre-distortion a mobile terminal would have to know the channel responses for the other users, which is highly unrealistic.

According to the invention, the optimisation problem is elegantly solved by assuming that all the mobile terminals within a cell adopt the same pre-distortion procedure and that the channel response vectors h_(i) are statistically identical. In such instance, the average interference power Γ(→i) which affects the uplink channel of user i is equal to the total average interference power Γ(i→) generated by the mobile terminal i and affecting the uplink channels of the other users.

$\begin{matrix} {{{\overset{\_}{\Gamma}\left( \rightarrow i \right)} = {{{\overset{\_}{\Gamma}\left( i\rightarrow \right)}\mspace{14mu}{with}\mspace{14mu}{\Gamma\left( i\rightarrow \right)}} = {\mu^{2}{\sum\limits_{\underset{j \neq i}{j = 0}}^{K - 1}{w_{i}^{H}v_{ji}v_{ji}^{H}w_{i}}}}}}\;} & (12) \end{matrix}$ and where the average values are estimated over the channel response coefficients h_(i)(l).

Having regard to (12), it is proposed to introduce a pseudo signal to noise plus interference ratio, denoted m-SINR_(i) for user i:

$\begin{matrix} {{m - {{SIN}\; R_{i}}} = {\frac{\mu^{2}}{N^{2}}\frac{\left| {w_{i}^{H}h_{i}} \right|^{2}}{{\Gamma\left( i\rightarrow \right)} + {\mu^{2}\sigma^{2}}}}} & (13) \end{matrix}$ an to find the vector w_(i) maximising m-SINR_(i) for a fixed transmitted power P_(i)=|w_(i)|². Without loss of generality, it will be supposed in the following that P_(i)=N (unit power per carrier). The interference power Γ(i→) generated by user i can be reformulated as:

$\begin{matrix} {{\Gamma\left( i\rightarrow \right)} = {{\mu^{2}{w_{i}^{H}\left( {\sum\limits_{\underset{j \neq i}{j = 0}}^{K - 1}{v_{ji}v_{ji}^{H}}} \right)}w_{i}} = {\mu^{2}w_{i}^{H}\Phi_{i}w_{i}}}} & (14) \end{matrix}$ where the Hermitian matrix

$\Phi_{i} = {\sum\limits_{\underset{j \neq i}{j = 0}}^{K - 1}{v_{ji}v_{ji}^{H}}}$ represents the quadratic form associated with the generated interference power of user i. We want to find (see expression (11):

$\begin{matrix} {{\arg\;\max\frac{\left| {w_{i}^{H}h_{i}} \right|^{2}}{{w_{i}^{H}\Phi_{i}w_{i}} + {w_{i}^{H}w_{i}\frac{\sigma^{2}}{N}}}} = {\arg\;\max\frac{\left| {w_{i}^{H}h_{i}} \right|^{2}}{{w_{i}^{H}\left( {\Phi_{i} + {\frac{\sigma^{2}}{N}I}} \right)}w_{i}}}} & (15) \end{matrix}$ such that |w_(i)|²=N.

It should be noted that expression (15) is unchanged when w_(i) is multiplied by a constant, i.e. for all {tilde over (w)}_(i)=βw_(i), whatever the scalar β. It is possible to look for the optimal {tilde over (w)}_(i) that verifies {tilde over (w)}_(i) ^(H)h_(i)=1, and then to normalise the result by the factor

$\frac{\sqrt{N}}{\left. ||{\overset{\sim}{w}}_{i} \right.||}$ to obtain w_(i). The optimum pre-distortion vector {tilde over (w)}_(i) must therefore satisfy:

$\begin{matrix} {{\arg\;{\min\left( {{\overset{\sim}{w}}_{i}^{H}\Psi_{i}{\overset{\sim}{w}}_{i}} \right)}\mspace{14mu}{with}\mspace{14mu}\Psi_{i}} = {{\Phi_{i} + {\frac{\sigma^{2}}{N}I\mspace{14mu}{and}\mspace{14mu}{\overset{\sim}{w}}_{i}^{H}h_{i}}} = 1}} & (16) \end{matrix}$ For solving this problem we introduce the Lagrange function: L={tilde over (w)} _(i) ^(H)Ψ_(i) {tilde over (w)} _(i)−λ({tilde over (w)} _(i) ^(H) h _(i)−1)=0  (17) where λ is a Lagrange multiplier. By calculating the gradients according to the vectors {tilde over (w)}_(i)* (the same result can be obtained by calculating the gradients according to the vectors {tilde over (w)}_(i)): ∇_({tilde over (w)}*) _(i) L=Ψ _(i) {tilde over (w)} _(i) −λh _(i)=0  (18) Finally, we can conclude that the optimal vector {tilde over (w)}_(i) is given by:

$\begin{matrix} {{\overset{\sim}{w}}_{i} = {{\lambda\left( {\Phi_{i} + {\frac{\sigma^{2}}{N}I}} \right)}^{- 1}h_{i}}} & (19) \end{matrix}$ and therefore the optimal vector w_(i) is given by:

$\begin{matrix} {w_{i} = {{\alpha\left( {\Phi_{i} + {\frac{\sigma^{2}}{N}I}} \right)}^{- 1}h_{i}}} & (20) \end{matrix}$ with α chosen so that |w_(i)|²=N. For a desired transmitted power, the pre-distortion vector for the mobile terminal of user i is proportional to

${\left( {\Phi_{i} + {\frac{\sigma^{2}}{N}I}} \right)^{- 1}h_{i}},$ expression which depends (through Φ_(i)) on the spreading codes allocated to the other users but not on the channel responses of the other uplink channels. Indeed, the matrix Φ_(i) for user i can be expressed as a function of the code sequences c_(j) (for all the users j) and channel response h_(i) as follows:

$\begin{matrix} {\Phi_{i} = {{\sum\limits_{j \neq i}{v_{ij}v_{ij}^{H}}} = {\sum\limits_{j \neq i}{\left( {c_{j}^{*} \circ h_{i} \circ c_{i}} \right)\left( {c_{j}^{*} \circ h_{i} \circ c_{i}} \right)^{H}}}}} & (21) \\ {\Phi_{i} = {\sum\limits_{j \neq i}{{{Diag}\left( h_{i} \right)} \cdot {{Diag}\left( c_{i} \right)} \cdot \left( {c_{j}^{*}c_{j}^{T}} \right) \cdot {{Diag}\left( c_{i}^{*} \right)} \cdot {{Diag}\left( h_{i}^{*} \right)}}}} & (22) \end{matrix}$ where Diag(u) is the N×N diagonal matrix having the components of vector u as diagonal elements and .^(T) denotes the transpose operation.

$\begin{matrix} {\Phi_{i} = {{{Diag}\left( h_{i} \right)} \cdot {{Diag}\left( c_{i} \right)} \cdot {\sum\limits_{j \neq i}{\left( {c_{j}^{*}c_{j}^{T}} \right) \cdot {{Diag}\left( c_{i}^{*} \right)} \cdot {{Diag}\left( h_{i}^{*} \right)}}}}} & (23) \end{matrix}$ and therefore: Φ_(i)=Diag(h _(i))·Diag(c _(i))·C _(i) *C _(i) ^(T)·Diag(c _(i)*)·Diag(h_(i)*)  (24) where C_(i) is the N×(K−1) matrix consisting of the spreading sequences except the spreading sequence of user i.

As it can be seen from expression (24), the calculation of Φ_(i) merely entails a multiplication by diagonal matrices which requires few simple operations, and the calculation of the matrix C_(i)*C_(i) ^(T) for which fast algorithms, e.g. Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) or Walsh Hadamard Transform (WHT) do exist. The latter matrix needs only to be recalculated when the number of users or the code allocation changes, for example every frame. The matrix Φ_(i) and hence the vector w_(i) does not depend on the vectors of channel coefficients h_(j), j≠i. It is reminded that the coefficients h_(i)(l) of the uplink channel are supposed identical to those of the downlink channel.

The calculation of the matrix Φ_(i) can be simplified by operating on the amplitudes of the channel coefficients. More precisely, if h_(i)(l)=ρ_(i)(l)e^(jθ) ^(i) ^((l)) where ρ_(i)(l) and θ_(i)(l) are respectively the amplitude and the argument of the channel response coefficient h_(i)(l), and we denote ρ_(i) and e^(jθ) ^(i) the vectors of components ρ_(i)(l) and e^(jθ) ^(i) ^((l)) respectively, we have: Φ_(i)=Diag(e^(jθ) ^(i) )Φ_(i)′Diag(e^(−jθ) ^(i) )  (25) where we have denoted: Φ_(i)′=Diag(ρ_(i))·Diag(c _(i))·C _(i) *C _(i) ^(T)·Diag(c _(i)*)·Diag(ρ_(i))  (26) From equation (20) we obtain:

$w_{i} = {{\alpha\left( {{{{Diag}\left( {\mathbb{e}}^{j\;\theta_{i}} \right)} \cdot \Phi_{i}^{\prime} \cdot {{Diag}\left( {\mathbb{e}}^{{- j}\;\theta_{i}} \right)}} + {\frac{\sigma^{2}}{N}I}} \right)}^{- 1}h_{i}}$ $w_{i} = {{\alpha\left( {{{Diag}\left( {\mathbb{e}}^{{j\theta}_{i}} \right)}{\left( {\Phi_{i}^{\prime} + {\frac{\sigma^{2}}{N}I}} \right) \cdot {{Diag}\left( {\mathbb{e}}^{- {j\theta}_{i}} \right)}}} \right)}^{- 1}h_{i}}$ $w_{i} = {{{{\alpha{Diag}}\left( {\mathbb{e}}^{{j\theta}_{i}} \right)} \cdot \left( {\Phi_{i}^{\prime} + {\frac{\sigma^{2}}{N}I}}\; \right)^{- 1} \cdot {{Diag}\left( {\mathbb{e}}^{- {j\theta}_{i}} \right)}}h_{i}}$ $w_{i} = {{{{\alpha{Diag}}\left( {\mathbb{e}}^{{j\theta}_{i}} \right)}\left( {\Phi_{i}^{\prime} + {\frac{\sigma^{2}}{N}I}} \right)^{- 1}\rho_{i}} = {{{Diag}\left( {\mathbb{e}}^{{j\theta}_{i}} \right)}w_{i}^{\prime}}}$ Hence, the vector of weighting coefficients can be written: ω_(i)=Diag(e ^(−jθ) ^(i) )ω_(i)′  (27) where

$\begin{matrix} {\omega_{i}^{\prime} = {{\alpha \cdot \left( {\Phi_{i}^{\prime} + {\frac{\sigma^{2}}{N}I}} \right)^{- 1}}\rho_{i}}} & (28) \end{matrix}$

It is therefore possible to calculate first the matrix Φ_(i)′ and to apply then the phase factors e^(−jθ) ^(i) ^((l)) to the real components ω_(i)′(l) of ω_(i)′ as obtained in (28).

In general, the diagonal elements

$\gamma_{kk} = {{\sum\limits_{\underset{j \neq i}{j = 0}}^{K - 1}{C_{kj}C_{kj}^{*}}} = {\left( {K - 1} \right)/N}}$ of the matrix C_(i)*C_(i) ^(T) are expected to be larger than the off-diagonal elements

$\gamma_{{kk}^{\prime}} = {\sum\limits_{\underset{j \neq i}{j = 0}}^{K - 1}{C_{kj}^{*}C_{kj}^{\prime}}}$ since the terms C_(kj)*C_(k′j) tend to cancel out each other when k≠k′ (uncorrelated spreading sequences). This is particularly true when the ratio K/N is large.

The matrix Φ_(i) can therefore be approximated by a diagonal matrix:

$\begin{matrix} {\Phi_{i} = {{{Diag}\left( \left. \frac{K - 1}{N} \middle| h_{i} \middle| {}_{2} \middle| c_{i} \right|^{2} \right)} = {\frac{K - 1}{N^{2}}{{Diag}\left( \left| h_{i} \right|^{2} \right)}}}} & (29) \end{matrix}$ Hence, the pre-distortion coefficients w_(i)(l) can be written, from (20) and (29):

$\begin{matrix} {{w_{i}(l)} = {{\alpha\frac{h_{i}(l)}{\left. \frac{K - 1}{N^{2}} \middle| {h_{i}(l)} \middle| {}_{2}{+ \frac{\sigma^{2}}{N}} \right.}} = {\alpha^{\prime}\frac{h_{i}(l)}{\left. \frac{K - 1}{N} \middle| {h_{i}(l)} \middle| {}_{2}{+ \sigma^{2}} \right.}}}} & (30) \end{matrix}$ where α′=N.α. Hence the weighting coefficients can be expressed as:

$\begin{matrix} {{\omega_{i}(l)} = {\alpha^{\prime}\frac{h_{i}^{*}(l)}{\left. \frac{K - 1}{N} \middle| {h_{i}(l)} \middle| {}_{2}{+ \sigma^{2}} \right.}}} & (31) \end{matrix}$ It can be shown that the weighting coefficients obtained from (31) ensures an optimal pre-distortion per carrier (in the sense of a maximum m-SINR_(i)) when the channel response coefficients are uncorrelated, e.g. for a Rayleigh channel. A pre-distortion per carrier is defined here as a pre-distortion where each pre-distortion coefficient w_(i)(l) is constrained to depend only on the channel response coefficient at the same frequency h_(i)(l).

In addition, it can be shown that, if the channel response coefficients h_(i)(l), l=0, . . . ,L−1 are correlated, the MAI level is reduced and the following expression for the weighting coefficients is advantageously used:

$\begin{matrix} {{\omega_{i}(l)} = {\alpha^{\prime}\frac{h_{i}^{*}(l)}{\left. {\beta\frac{K - 1}{N}} \middle| {h_{i}(l)} \middle| {}_{2}{+ \sigma^{2}} \right.}}} & (32) \end{matrix}$ where β is a weighting factor, 0≦β≦1, which reflects the correlation of the channel response coefficients h_(i)(l), l=0, . . . ,L−1 and departs from β=1 when the channel response coefficients are correlated.

The value of the noise variance σ² is taken here as the inverse of the SINR (Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio) for the demodulated signal. The value of the noise variance σ² in (31) or (32) can be estimated by the base station and transmitted to the mobile terminal. Alternatively, a value of the noise variance σ² can be retrieved from a look-up table of typical values stored e.g. in a memory of the mobile terminal. In general, the table is indexed by the parameters of the communication as the targeted BER level, the type of modulation, the type of channel coding used.

For illustrative purpose, FIG. 3 depicts schematically the structure of an MC-CDMA transmitter in a mobile terminal, implementing the pre-distortion method according to an embodiment of the invention. As in the prior art, the transmitter comprises a first multiplier 310 for multiplying the symbol to be transmitted by the code sequence of user i, a multiplexer 320 for multiplexing the results over the OFDM multiplex, a module 330 performing an inverse Fourier transform (with prefix insertion), a parallel/serial converter 340 and an amplifier 350. In contrast with the prior art however, the transmitter further comprises a second multiplier 311 for multiplying the frequency components d_(i)c_(i)(l) with the weighting coefficients ω_(i)(l) respectively. The channel response coefficients h_(i)(l) are obtained in the estimating means 360 e.g. from a received pilot symbol. The calculating means 361 may directly derive the weighting coefficients ω_(i)(l) from said channel response coefficients according to expression (31) or (32). Alternatively, as illustrated, the calculation in 361 can be performed on the amplitude values ρ_(i)(l) that is

${\omega_{i}^{\prime}(l)} = {\alpha^{\prime}\frac{\rho_{i}(l)}{{\beta\frac{K - 1}{N}{{\rho_{i}(l)}}^{2}} + \sigma^{2}}}$ and the phase factors e^(−jθ) ^(i) ^((l)) can be applied to the coefficients ω_(i)′(l) at the output of the calculating means with a further multiplier 362.

FIG. 4 illustrates the structure of a MC-CDMA receiver in the base station adapted to receive a signal transmitted by a MC-CDMA transmitter according to the invention. As in the prior art of FIG. 2, the present receiver comprises a serial to parallel converter 410, an FFT module 420 (with prefix removal), multipliers 430 ₀ to 430 _(L−1) for multiplying the samples in the frequency domain by the conjugates c_(i)*(l) of the elements of the spreading sequence, an adder 440 and a detector 450 for supplying the estimated symbols. As in the prior art, an error control decoding can be provided, like a Viterbi decoding or a turbo-decoding. In contrast to the prior art, however, no equalisation is needed since pre-distortion has been performed at the transmitter side.

Although the MC-CDMA transmitter illustrated in FIG. 3 has been described in terms of functional modules e.g. computing or estimating means, it goes without saying that all or part of this device can be implemented by means of a single processor either dedicated for performing all the functions depicted or in the form of a plurality of processors either dedicated or programmed for each performing one or some of said functions. 

1. A method of pre-distorting a signal (S_(i)(t)) to be transmitted over an uplink transmission channel to a base station by a mobile terminal (i), each symbol (d_(i)) transmitted by said mobile terminal being spread with a coding sequence (c_(i)(l)) over a plurality of carriers (l) to produce a plurality of corresponding frequency components (d_(i)c_(i)(l)) of said signal (S_(i)(t)), comprising: weighting each frequency component (d_(i)c_(i)(l)) by a weighting coefficient (ω_(i)(l)) corresponding to a channel response coefficient (h_(i)(l)) of a corresponding downlink transmission channel at a corresponding frequency (f_(l)) and to a value of a noise variance (σ²) affecting said plurality of carriers, the weighting coefficient ω_(i)(l) being ${\omega_{i}(l)} = {\alpha^{\prime}\frac{h_{i}^{*}(l)}{{\beta\frac{K - 1}{N}{{h_{i}(l)}}^{2}} + \sigma^{2}}}$ where, K is a number of active mobile terminals served by said base station, N is a length of said coding sequence, α′ is a normalisation coefficient, β is a real weighting coefficient, and * denotes a conjugate operation.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: retrieving said value of noise variance (σ²) from a look-up table.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving said value of the noise variance (σ²) from said base station.
 4. A method of pre-distorting a signal (S_(i)(t)) to be transmitted over an uplink transmission channel to a base station by a mobile terminal (i), each symbol (d_(i)) transmitted by said mobile terminal being spread with a coding sequence (c_(i)(l)) over a plurality of carriers (l) to produce a plurality of corresponding frequency components (d_(i)ci(l)) of said signal (S_(i)(t)), comprising: weighting each frequency component (d_(i)c_(i)(l)) by a weighting coefficient (ω_(i)(l)) corresponding to a channel response coefficient (h_(i)(l)) of a corresponding downlink transmission channel at a corresponding frequency (f_(l)) and to a value of a noise variance (σ²) affecting said plurality of carriers, an amplitude ω′_(i)(l) of the weighting coefficient being ${\omega_{i}^{\prime}(l)} = {\alpha^{\prime}\frac{\rho_{i}(l)}{{\beta\frac{K - 1}{N}{{\rho_{i}(l)}}^{2}} + \sigma^{2}}}$ where ρ_(i)(l)) is an amplitude of the channel response coefficient, K is a number of active mobile terminals served by said base station, N is a length of said coding sequence, α is a normalisation coefficients, and βis a real weighting coefficient.
 5. The method of claim 4, further comprising: retrieving said value of noise variance (σ²) from a look-up table.
 6. The method of claim 4, further comprising: receiving said value of the noise variance (σ²) from said base station.
 7. A mobile terminal (i) configured to pre-distort a signal (S_(i)(t)) prior to transmitting said signal over an uplink transmission channel to a base station, including a spreader configured to spread each symbol (d_(i)) with a coding sequence (c_(i)(l)) over a plurality of carriers (l) to produce a plurality of corresponding frequency components (dici(f)) of said signal (S_(i)(t)), comprising: a pre-distorter configured to apply a weighting coefficient (ω_(i) (l)) to each frequency component (d_(i)c_(i) (l)), the weighting coefficient (ω_(i)(l)) corresponding to a channel response coefficient (h_(i)(l)) of a corresponding downlink transmission channel at a corresponding frequency (f_(l)) and to a value of a noise variance (σ²) affecting said plurality of carriers, the weighting coefficient ωhd i(l) being ${\omega_{i}(l)} = {\alpha^{\prime}\frac{h_{i}^{*}(l)}{{\beta\frac{K - 1}{N}{{h_{i}(l)}}^{2}} + \sigma^{2}}}$ where, K is a number of active mobile terminals served by said base station, N is a length of said coding sequence, α′ is a normalisation coefficient, β is a real weighting coefficient and * denotes a conjugate operation.
 8. A mobile terminal (i) configured to pre-distort a signal (S_(i)(t)) prior to transmitting said signal over an uplink transmission channel to a base station, including a spreader configured to spread each symbol (d_(i)) with a coding sequence (c_(i)(l)) over a plurality of carriers (l) to produce a plurality of corresponding frequency components (d_(i)c_(i)(l)) of said signal (S_(i)(t)), comprising: a pre-distorter configured to apply a weighting coefficient (ω_(i)(l)) to each frequency component (d_(i)c_(i)(l)), the weighting coefficient (ω_(i)(l)) corresponding to a channel response coefficient (h_(i)(f)) of a corresponding downlink transmission channel at a corresponding frequency (f_(l)) and to a value of a noise variance (σ²) affecting said plurality of carriers, an amplitude ω′_(i)(l)) of the weighting coefficient being ${\omega_{i}^{\prime}(l)} = {\alpha^{\prime}\frac{\rho(l)}{{\beta\frac{K - 1}{N}{{\rho_{i}(l)}}^{2}} + \sigma^{2}}}$ where ρ_(i)(l)) is the amplitude of the channel response coefficient, K is a number of active mobile terminals served by said base station, N is a length of said coding sequence, α′ is a normalisation coefficient, and β is a real weighting coefficient. 